Richard,
I used to paint all my yachts and here is what you need to do. You do not have to remove all the paint but you do have to prepare the surface. Wet sand the hull with no more than 400 grit sand paper. You need some bite for the new paint to adhere to. Wash the hull down and dry it. Assuming you wont need to mend highspots, give the yacht a thick base coat. This will cover any pinholes in the surface. Any pinholes will expose itself when the clear coat goes on. Next coat will be the colour of your choice. Both need to be completely dry before you apply the next. Now comes the critical part. The clear coat. I suggest that you mix the hardner as per the recommended portions (usually 25% I believe) but instead of thining it down 20% I suggest that you double it to 40%. The spray gun too needs to have the proper air pressure and it differs with gravity feed or sution feed guns. With 20% thining, you will need to polish the hull after paint but usually 1 coat is sufficient. With 40% you need to give it 2 to 3 light coats but because it flows more freely, you wont need to polish the hull later. Baking the hull does not increase the strength of the paint. It just decreases curing time.
Good luck
Scully

Cheers for the advice guys...next comes actually doing the job.It will be exactly the same gray and white colour scheme.Just tarting it up a bit as there are a few"incident" scars to take care of.

I finished putting my Isobar back together after a fresh coat of paint.

Nice job, Mike! Just like I would have done.

Looks good Rick.

Now you have a problem, it is December and the boat is painted and the boat stand is built. What the heck you going to do until spring.

Just so you know, as soon as there is any tiny bit of water the IOM guys start sailing. We started sailing in March last two years. The rest if the club starts in May. Bunch of sissies!

Originally Posted by Ted Flack

Looks good Rick.

Now you have a problem, it is December and the boat is painted and the boat stand is built. What the heck you going to do until spring.

Just so you know, as soon as there is any tiny bit of water the IOM guys start sailing. We started sailing in March last two years. The rest if the club starts in May. Bunch of sissies!

Got to love my Southern California weather. Sail all year round.

Yep, I think I will sail this weekend. I'll start building another one in January. It will be colder then.

going to dismantle my non-legal triple crown (has fixed keel) and re-use parts for a new iom to-be-built. looking for either the tempest, maximuss mk2 or any newish designs to build. will pay for detailed plans..... Please let me know where I can download or buy

Chip in the
US

I'm kind of embarassed about the quality of the paint job, but what the heck, it's only a little boat.
Do you all remember many years ago when the Americans were trying to beat the Aussi's with their secrete shark skin finish. Well, that's the finish that I have now. Should be really fast, and if not, well I'll paint it again.

well the lakes in the UK have been frozen solid for two weeks were having a cold winter with more snow predicted for Christmas.

On another note Rickie I would not worry too much about the paint job on some of Graham Bantocks own boats (Topikos) below the water line have been rubbed down with something like 1200 wet'n'dry for that shark skin effect one sails in my club and and it's one of the fastest boats in the club.

Chip,

The Tempest is a boat that is in production so wion't find any plans, but try this site


http://www.velarc.net/classe_iom_eng.htm

All the free IOM plans are on there.

Toni we will be 32 degrees C today and heading towards 40 C on Xmas day

Mike

Oh I envy you in Aus, to be honest we in the UK have only just started getting extreme cold weather conditions like this the last few years probably due to climate change.
I have just bought a very nice Isis and made new rigs and BG Sails fitted and just about to get it measured so I will be chewing at the bit to try it out on the lake as soon as they thaw.

Does anyone do any RC Ice sailing?
Man I bet that would be fun....probably only need the C rig to get ballistic type speeds..

Toni,

How many boats is that now you have? Arrival, Cookatoo and an Isis?

As for the heat it is not that fun standing at the side of a lake racing/drifting with no wind and stinking hot. Plus the lake we race on smells a bit so there is no jumping.

Originally Posted by k4s

Does anyone do any RC Ice sailing?
Man I bet that would be fun....probably only need the C rig to get ballistic type speeds..

Now that's a good question for Ted Flack, I bet he would know.
Well Ted, where do we get an ice boat to pass the winter months.